How to Use Garlic Scapes and Shoots in Recipes

A Delicious Bunch of Garlic Scapes!

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Heads of garlic are an essential part of any gourmet kitchen, but did you know that there’s much more to garlic than its cloves?

Garlic scapes (also known as garlic tops, garlic shoots, green garlic, spring baby garlic, garlic spears, early garlic greens, or garlic “flowers”) are the curly tipped, extremely tasty green shoots that grow from “heads” of hardneck (or topset) garlic which are usually discarded before harvesting in most of the U.S.

This is quite a shame because garlic scapes are a versatile and nutritious culinary treasure that is valued in Korean, Chinese, Thai, Polynesian, and coastal French cuisine.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Garlic Scapes (Fresh or Frozen)

Step 1

Purchase some Garlic scapes. Asian markets with produce sections usually stock fresh garlic scapes in season, but you can also find them at farmers’ markets, and gourmet supermarkets. Frozen garlic scapes are readily available year-round in the freezer section of most Asian supermarkets.) Both are delicious.
Step 2

Taste-wise, garlic scapes are to garlic heads what scallions are to onions. They are garlicky but with a fresh "green" taste. They can be used in any dish where one usually uses garlic but wants a brighter, more complex garlic flavor with less bite than one would get from standard garlic cloves.
Step 3

Garlic scapes work well in soups, salads, stews, salsas, dips, guacamole, omelettes, frittatas, souffles, marinades, pesto, salad dressings, and stir-fry. Scapes are also delightful when cooked into sauces, chopped up and used as a garlicky pizza topping or used to make toasted garlic bread.
Step 4

Garlic scapes can also be pickled and added to homemade flavored vinegars.
Step 5

A simple but wonderful garlic scape spread or dip can be made by chopping some scapes up and mixing them with softened cream cheese (or sour cream) and dill.
Step 6

You can add garlic scapes to mayonnaise to make an aioli. When combined with mayonnaise, the flavor of chopped garlic scapes becomes milder and the savory notes are more apparent.
Step 7

You can also make a nice garlic scape dressing with sour cream to add to salads, use as a dip for crackers, toast points, and pork rinds or to spoon over a nice salad.
Step 8

You can also chop up garlic scapes and use them for seasoning, just like regular garlic.